Food cost rise for charities

Food supplies at the Shepherd's Table are dwindling, but the soup kitchen's lunchtime line keeps growing. Douglas Richardson used to show up just 20 minutes before the downtown Raleigh food mission opened its door for lunch each day. Dawdle that long now before arriving, the homeless construction worker noted Wednesday, and you risk standing a couple hundred deep waiting your turn to file inside.

Tuesday's lunch hour brought in a record 343 people to the Shepherd's Table's Hillsborough Street location. Wednesday's light rain did not keep another 293 from lining up for a hot lunch.

"There's a lot of people out here ... maybe they had a job and are not homeless," said Richardson, 40. "But things are happening. They're losing their jobs."